Apparel pad



Nov. 4, 1952 J. A. TALALAY APPAREL PAD Filed Aug. 13, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 JosEPH A. TALALAY mvENroR.

ATTORNEY J. A. TALALAY Nov. 4, l1952 APPAREL PAD Filed Aug. 13, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 CLOSED-CELL SPO'N GE CLOSEU -CELL SPON GE OPEN MESH BONDED WDGL JOSEPH. A. TALALAY NVENTOR. Mw

`ATT ORNEY Nov. 4, 1952 .L A. TALALAY 2,616,093

APPAREL PAD Filed Aug. 13, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 OPENMESH BONDED FIBER JOSEPH. A. TLALAY INVENTGR k 2 20) Z F116( \'23 k23A OPEN #1545 cLoszmcA-u. .BY s s Er 4mA/msn Flask E spons: M114( ATTORNEY softness Patented Nov. 4, `1952 `UNI''il-"EFD STATES PAT E N T O FF IC l?.

ABBAREL AlEAl) Joseph Ar'lalalay, New Haven, Conn.

AnplicatiomAug-ust :13, 194.7, `Serial N o.A 768,412

9 Claims. A1

This .invention relates topads,,such 'assshoulder pad'sfor garments,l breast pads,..and the like,.a.nd to methods of making the same.

itsv chief .object .is ,toprovide Aa pad hav-ing in .high .degree some or all of the physical characteristics .that are generally recognized as .being desirable .in a. shoulder pad or a breastpad .and yetadapted to'be subjected to many Vwashing-s or .dry-.cleaning operations, or to repeated pressing `or ironing of Ythe garment-of' which the .padmay .be i a part, without vearly deterioration-.of .the pad, either 4in shape or in duality.

More specific. obiectssing1y.andinconjunction withone anothenare .to provide, .in such a pad, resilience; lightness; smoothness Vof surface; ready adaptability for incorporation in .a garment, .as b y .sewing it to Ifabric or enclosing it within a covering `of fabric; Vwater repellent or non-absorbing properties; heat-resistance; resistance to and .dimensional stability .in solvents of the kind used in ,dry-cleaning; Vuniformity of density and vof softness; land .effective provision for ventilation, as for the evaporation of per'sp ration. The above objectives, .so far as I vam aware, Ahave not hitherto .been achieved. in .conjunction With one another in any of :the shoulder pads orbreast pads of the v. priorart.

Of the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 v'is a longitudinal middle. section, .on line I--I of Fig. 2, of a Shoulder ypari .embodying and made in accordance with vmy invention in .one of its preferred forms.

Fig. 2 is ,an elevation .of the same, from v.the

'right of Eig. 1.

trating Yanother preferred .form .of Vmy invention.

Fig. .411s an .elevation of .a :shoulder padiillusv.tra-ting `another modiflcation.

LFig .5 is ya longitudinal middle .section of a shoulder pad illustrating .another modification.

Fig. 6 is a middle section of abreast. pad and the mold in which it is given ,its nal shape, illustrating still another form of the invention.

'I'he shoulder pad shown in Figs. 1 .and .2 comprises layers Il, H of a cellular material such as an expanded and vulcanized solvent-resistant synthetic rubber, in which, as produced by known procedures, the cells are individually of., closed form and not intercommunicating, such material being ladapted to withstand Vdry-cleaning fluids not only because of the 'solvent resistant property of the material as such but v'alsa because solvent can penetrate vinto the interior of the article only by diffusion along the devious course `through the indirectly extending cell walls.

This effect is especially great when lthe cells vare very small, as will "be manifest upon contemplaton of the geometry of the matter.,l as.-l

A"sumi'ng a lgiven density.-

` communicatingfwhile the cellsin Anindmationof them-gh degree ofimpermea- .bility to dry-cleaning fluids .that caribe .obtained ina closed-cell structure of anoil resistant syn,.-

thetic. rubber .as compared withl onen-.cell kor 4stereo,-reticulate. structures-is presentedY by the following example; l.

Tests were made of samples of the several fsubstances specified, in cellular form, by immersing .in commercialdry-cleaning fluid, for two hours,

.after removal from the fluid andafter the draining voff of the surplus fluid.y

'The results were as follows:

Material: Percent volumel increasev1. Foam made from ynatural rubber la-` tex 196 v2. Foam made from an aqueous ldispersionlof (neoprene) a polymer of lohioy robutadiene estw, 3.V Foam ,madefrom an laqueo s dieper-- sion of (Hycar) anitrile `'rubber (copolymers -Iof acrylonitrile and bute"q diene)` i .i .3.3 4;.. `,Clflemlcally blo n c rudjerubbersponge i .g .5.. Chemically f lown spo ee made; of' (neoprene) a polymer of chlorobllia* diene 7:7 6. A closed-cell, cellular structure made lof' (neoprene) a polymer of rchlorobuvtadiene '7. A closed cell, cellular structure. made l 0f '(hycaiV a nitrile rubber (copoly- Amers of acrylonitrile and butadiene) lSSiha'n. .-mmaw.-man s-Ham--msa--m-w y ,l

`The 'cellsin materials vl 2,53, 4 and 5-=are1inter materials Sand 1 *areofaclosed-cell form.` i The ratios of these figures would lof course'be veven more favorable to the -closed-cell'structures lin the case of briefer immersione ksuch as are employedin-dry-cleaning operations. u

In the construction of Figs. 1 and 2 the layers of fcellular rubber are alternated by and Vadhered to layers of woven fabric IU,y I0. The fabric layers, being porous,` permit rapid evaporation of cleaning fluid from them, vespecially when. as shown, the pad as a Whole is formed with la multiplicity of punched through apertures I 2, |'2 connecting local areas of the fabric with 'the'outer atmosphere. The use of fabric `insertions is optional, as shown in Figure 3, Where the layers vof cellular closed-cell rubber are directly adhered to one another.

Suitably shaped plates of other material 'such as ebonite can vbesubstit-uted'for the'fabric plies` 4The use of the fabric Orsini-ilar-ilayersjfacilomy and for uniformity of density, of resilienceV and of softness throughout the pad.

Also, having good permanency of dimensions,

and partially or fully vulcanized in flat sheet form of considerable thickness and the individual pieces can then be cut from the sheet by splitting l and suitably skiving at their margins.

For greater facility and accuracy of skiving,

'each cellular layer, alone or in association with one or more other layers of the cellular material the fabric layers give permanency of shape to the pad as a whole, and the two outer plies of fabric, covering the edges of the inner plies, provide a smooth surface and a good texture for the upper and lower faces of the pad and they can be extended, as shown, beyond the cellular layers,

along the curved, thin edge of the pad, to pro- Y,

vide a sewing margin I3 for ready incorporation of the pad in a garment. The number of fabric plies can be limited to two, one on each outer surface.

. The majority of the known methods for the production of closed-cell, cellular rubber are based on a two-stage process: (1) the rubber is compounded with suitable vulcanizing ingredients, antioxidants, pigments and a blowing agent and pre-vulcanized in a mold or frame the volume of which corresponds exactly to the volume of the rubber compound. In this manner the gasier or blowing' agent is caused to decompose but the article, unlike in the method of making chemically blown sponge, is not caused or permitted to expand during cure. When the process of prevulcanization is accomplished the mold is opened and the pre-cured blank pops out and expands to several times the size of the mold, under the action of the relieved but still confined gas. Due to the fact that the rubber is pre-vulcanized, the 'expansion of the rubber from the size of the precure mold to the size of the pre-cured blank takes place without rupture of the cell-walls, and without rendering the structure inter-communicating. (2) The second step of the process consists in transferring the blank to a larger, final-cure mold and finally vulcanizing it substantially without further expansion over and above the spontaneous and instantaneous expansion which took place upon release of the blank from the pre-cure mold.

In one form of my invention the cellular layers are cut from such partially vulcanized or pre-vulcanized and expanded -material and. the individual pieces are then built up, if desired, with-*the or of fabric, can be preliminarily frozen and then operated upon while in a frozen condition.

Because of the closed-cell character of the material, the distortion of it, as in ironing or pressing the garment, does not cause the gas within the cells to escape, but only compresses it, and when the distorting force is removed the gas expands and restores the individual cells, and consequently the pad as awhole, totheir original shapes.

, Thisl effect is especially good when the sponge material is formed by a known procedure ,such as to leave the cells filled with a gas, such as nitrogen, which is not highly subject to diffusion.

Even though the forming of the Ventilating holes I2 by cutting them with a die and punch opens some of the cells at the cut, the adjacent cells remain closed and consequently the cutting does not result in substantially increasing the permeability of the cellular material.

The holes can be die-cut concurrently with the die-cutting-of the pieces from a stack of sheets of the stock.

Alternatively the Ventilating holes can be formed by mold pins in the mold-Vulcanizing of the pad. l

The usual compoundingl ingredients, including reinforcing fibrous materials, can be employed.

The pad shown in Fig. 3 is built up, with the use of a suitable adhesive, of a set of pieces of cellular stock suitably preformed either by cutting and skiving or bymolding and the ventilatving holes I2a., I Za, similarly spaced in all of the plies, provide' Ventilating passages extending all of the way from the inner face to the outer face Vof the pad. This pad is adapted to be enclosed vwithin a fabric cover, or to be adhered to fabric- :fabric plies, and with the use of a suitable slvent' resistant' adhesive, to approximately thev final .shape of the pad, on a simple form, which can --be of wood, cast-iron or aluminum and consequently inexpensive, and the pad as a whole can be given its final shaping and vulcanizing in a suitable mold.

Alternatively the pad can be built up (and the plies adhered to each other with a solvent-resistant cement) from material which has been given the final cure, and in such case the nal molding can be omitted.

For greater softness and adaptability as to shape the plies can be adhered to each other in local areas only, as at the center or at spots along the middle line, and not throughout their extent.

Two of the pads can be built up and mold-vulcanized or otherwise formed as a single unit and thencut apart in the plane of their thicker ends, each half of the unit then being a pad such as is shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Alternatively the material can be made cellular surface layers, for its incorporation in a garment by sewing. Y A

Fig. 4` shows a similar pad without Ventilating holes, the pad having Ventilating and sewable cover layers I4, I5 of bonded ber, such as wool, which is of open-mesh form in all of the three dimensions. The inner plies are adapted to resist penetration of solvent as above-described and the open-mesh fiber, bonded with a solvent-resistant substance such as those above mentioned, is adapted to permit solvent to drain and evapcrate from it rapidly.

In the pad of Fig.`5 the inner plies I6, I6 are of the bonded fiber and are protected from solvent by covering sheets I7, I8, IS of the closedcell sponge material.

Thisis a desirable type of pad for the utilization of trimmings and scraps of either of the materials, which can be cut into small pieces and in random arrangement treated, as by tumbling, with a suitable adhesive and pressed into sheet form, and preferably vulcanized in such form. Suitably shaped pieces are then made from the sheet and are used preferably for the inner plies I5, I6 of the pad, with the protection of the covering sheets.

In Fig. 6 a breast pad is shown as being made of inner layers 2G, 2i! of the open-mesh bonded liber above described and cover layers 2I, 22 of the s ame material, with the exception of a nipple portion 23, which is made ofthe closed-cell, cel

lular, solvent-resistant material because the bonded fiber is not so well adapted for detail mold-shaping, and because the cellular material provides more appropriate characteristics.

Preferably the. nipple portion 23 is first made cellular and given its shape in a different mold and then built into the structure as shown, the structure first being assembled, with the use of a suitable adhesive, upon a suitably contoured form, and then given, and set in, its nal shape by heating and molding it in a mold comprising sections such as the mold sections 24, 25.

Preferably the nipple member is formed with a relatively wide base portion 23a having the same thickness as a ply of the bonded fiber and underlying and thus interlocked with the cover ply 22, the nipple itself extending through a hole in that ply, as shown.

Each of these embodiments provides a pad having some or all of the desirable characteristics set out in the above statement of objects.

As an alternative to giving the plies their thinned down form at their margins by preliminary mold-shaping or skiving they can be assembled with their full-thickness margins in stepped relation and the steps can be partially or completely smoothed out in the final molding, or they can be filled in by spraying the built up pad with cotton or other ock mixed with a suitable adhesive.

As an adhesive for this purpose, or for bonding the fibers, or for joining the plies of the pad, a good substance is gelatine plasticized with glycerin and hardened with formalin, as it is nonsoluble in water, has a good bonding quality, is resistant to commercial dry-cleaning iiuids, and is not unduly afected by heat.

Further modifications are possible without departure from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a closed-cell, cellular body of solventresistant rubber and, shaped as a unit therewith, a reticulate body of unwoven bers, said fibrous body having open-mesh structure in all of the three dimensions and the bers being bonded to one another at their crossing positions by a solvent-resistant bonding substance.

2. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a plurality of layers of a closedcell, cellular, solvent-resistant, synthetic rubber, and, between at least some of said layers and secured to them, a form-retaining material in sheet form.

3. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a closed-cell, cellular body of solvent-resistant, synthetic rubber and, shaped as a unit therewith, a reticulate body of unwoven fibers, said fibrous body having open-mesh structure in all of the three dimensions and the bers being bonded to one another at their crossing positions by a substance having substantially the bonding and solvent-resistant properties of gelatin plasticized by glycerin and hardened by formalin.

4. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a reticulate body of unwoven fibers, said body having open-mesh structure in all of the three dimensions and the bers being bonded to one another at their crossing positions by a substance having substantially the bonding and solvent-resistant properties of gelatin plasticized by glycerin and hardened by formalin.

5. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a body of filler material and, completely enclosing said body, a layer of a closed-cell, cellular, solvent resistant synthetic rubber, said layer consisting essentially of a multiplicity of individually closed, gas-filled, individually gas-retaining, cells.

6. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a plurality of layers of a closedcell, cellular substance having substantially the resilient deformability of vulcanized soft-rubber, and, between said layers and secured to them, a form-retaining material in sheet form.

7. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a body of ller material and, secured upon said body, a cover layer of a cellular substance having substantially the resilient deformability of vulcanized soft-rubber, said layer consisting essentially of a multiplicity of individually closed, gas-filled, individually gas-retaining, cells.

8. An apparel pad of concavo-complex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a closed-cell, cellular substance having substantially the resistant deformability of vulcanized soft-rubber and, adhered thereto, a layer of unwoven bers having open-mesh structure in all of the three dimensions and having its bers bonded to one another at their crossing positions.

9. An apparel pad of concavo-convex shape with its thickness graduated from a relatively thick portion to a thin marginal portion, said pad comprising a plurality of laminations of a cellular substance having substantially the resilient deformability of vulcanized soft-rubber, and of graduated sizes, each of said laminations consisting essentially of individually closed, gas-filled, individually gas-retaining, cells.

JOSEPH A. TALALAY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 814,181 Wolfe Mar. 6, 1906 1,788,126 Sladdin Jan. 6, 1931 2,068,644 Frais Jan. 26, 1937 2,172,499 Chassaing Sept. 12, 1939 2,325,903 Blair et al Aug. 2, 1943 2,455,534 Talalay Dec. 7, 1948 2,478,340 Talalay Aug. 9, 1949 2,492,890 Sameth Dec. 27, 1949 2,495,028 Spanel Jan. 17, 1950 2,509,645 Kleinrock May 30, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 542,687 Great Britain Jan. 23, 1942 

